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Popular Diets of Younger Folks Ticking Time Bombs After 40

Perhaps now, more than ever, physical appearance and health are a top priority for many younger people. The fashion industry, movies, television, magazines, internet and even social media seem to idolize size 2-6 figures and ridicule sizes of 16 and larger. When is the last time you saw images of a top fashion show or clothing advertisement featuring sizes 16-20-24 and larger? Go to a popular beach and see who gets the most attention, some slender thing in a bikini or a heavier woman?

Like it or not, as unfair as it may be, image to many younger girls and women is everything. Consequently, some get trapped in dangerous habits like anorexia and bulimia or extreme dieting that literally starves their bodies. Some girls and younger women become so obsessed and depressed over their weight and so embarrassed by some of the comments they hear from others, especially over social media, that they are driven to suicide.

Coupled with the obsession of physical appearance a growing number of people, especially females, find that they are either lactose or gluten intolerant. Lactose intolerant people generally must avoid all dairy products unless they have been rendered lactose free. Gluten intolerant people must avoid wheat and most grains including anything made with flour, unless it is gluten free flour

We have a dear friend that is like another daughter to us who is gluten intolerant and we have witnessed the struggles of dieting that she goes through. Whenever she was visiting, we were very careful not to serve anything that had any gluten in it for fear of what it would do to her. That means no pastries, cakes, cookies, breads and even gravies.

Worrying about their appearance and possible health concerns many young people, especially girls and women, have been turning to gluten and/or dairy free diets. They believe it is healthier for them in the long run. However, they fail to realize that their so-called healthy diets may be healthy in their younger years but ticking time bombs as they age past 40 and older.

To begin with, researchers recently found that only about 5% of the total population was lactose intolerant and about 1% had celiac disease, meaning that they are gluten intolerant. The study found that 46% of the people between the ages of 16 to 24 claimed to have had a bad reaction to milk, which most likely was either due to spoiled milk or something else mixed with the milk or some other illness that may have hit at the same time.

Therefore, a much greater percentage of the younger population have jumped on the dairy and/or gluten free diets. So why are these diets so dangerous in the long run?

“The National Osteoporosis Society has said that cutting out milk could be leaving thousands of young adults with weaker bones because they’re not getting enough calcium. The society says it is a ‘ticking time bomb’ for developing permanent bone problems like osteoporosis, because bones generally stop developing once you hit 30.”

A few statistics on osteoporosis, like it affects over 3 million women in the United Kingdom and 44 million women in the US, may being this point home:

Worldwide, osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures annually, resulting in an osteoporotic fracture every 3 seconds.

Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, USA and Japan.

For the year 2000, there were an estimated 9 million new osteoporotic fractures, of which 1.6 million were at the hip, 1.7 million were at the forearm and 1.4 million were clinical vertebral fractures. Europe and the Americas accounted for 51% of all these fractures, while most of the remainder occurred in the Western Pacific region and Southeast Asia.

Worldwide, 1 in 3 women over age 50 will experience osteoporotic fractures, as will 1 in 5 men aged over 50.

80%, 75%, 70% and 58% of forearm, humerus, hip and spine fractures, respectively, occur in women. Overall, 61% of osteoporotic fractures occur in women, with a female-to-male ratio of 1.6.

Nearly 75% of hip, spine and distal forearm fractures occur among patients 65 years old or over.

For more statistics, click here.

My mother-in-law ate dairy, but very little and also avoided eggs and many things made with eggs. It was the same as if she was on a dairy free diet. In her later years, she had multiple ribs that broke free and just remained free. Her spine compressed from lack of bone density and she lost nearly 6 inches in height. The loss of height caused her esophagus to fold back and forth, making swallowing anything, including liquids, nearly impossible without severely choking. She ended up having to get all of her nourishment through a feeding tube that was inserted through her side into her stomach. For over two years before she died, she would pour the contents of a liquid product like Ensure, into a large syringe and then push it through the feeding tube into her stomach. She often commented about how she missed the taste of her favorite foods or daily cup of tea.

This is the ticking time bomb waiting to explode for so many who needlessly go on dairy free diets in their younger days. As they grow older, the lack of dairy products may just leave them like my mother-in-law with broken bones that wouldn’t heal and living off a feeding tube that is inserted through the side and into the stomach.